One of the littleknown facts about local public radio station WWOZ is what the station’s call letters stand for. Its founders chose an abbreviation for the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” from the namesake book and feature film. After 35 years of making her own kind of magic happen at New Orleans’ leading public television station, Beth Arroyo Utterback continues her magical journey at the helm of the city’s leading public broadcast outlet. As the newly appointed general manager of WWOZ (90.7 FM), she happily agrees that, like Judy Garland in the movie, “’There’s no place like home.’ That’s what it feels like to me.” Since leaving her longtime employer at WYES Channel 12 earlier this year and taking her new position at ‘O-Z’ on June 1, Beth has already unveiled a creative vision for the station in the years to come: especially with New Orleans celebrating its Tricentennial next year. For starters, she has conceived an ambitious project calling for a series of over 100 “mini-documentaries” highlighting the city’s storied musical THE WIZARDESS OF ‘OZ Beth Arroyo Utterback Offers a Magical Vision for WWOZ By Dean M. Shapiro history. The one-and-a-half to twominute vignettes will feature voice-over narrations by some of New Orleans’ leading musical icons and other celebrities. And there’s still more exciting innovations to come, Beth promises. With a worldwide audience of more than 900,000 homes in about 200 countries through streaming on their website, plus more than 100,000 local radio listeners weekly and 86,000 Facebook followers, WWOZ’s numbers have Beth in awe. So much so that she was inspired to coin a catchy slogan: “If you can’t live in New Orleans, let New Orleans live in you.” Commenting on her first two months at the listener-supported station that was founded in 1980 and specializes in indigenous New Orleans music, Beth said, “It’s a wonderful, very exciting place to be. There are so many great things going on here. So much incredible talent that comes to our studios and we broadcast them live on Facebook and on the Internet all around the world. It’s really an amazing experience. I get up and I can’t wait to get to work in the morning.” With family roots dating back more than two centuries – to the Spanish rule of New Orleans in the late 1700s – Beth is an enthusiastic cheerleader for the city. Born and raised here in an artistically creative family, she acted in local stage productions for more than 25 years, as did her sisters Maria and Vicki and her brother Sidney Arroyo who was also the longtime lead singer for Vince Vance & The Valiants, as well as a highly sought-after political consultant before his recent retirement. “They called our family ‘the Barrymores of New Orleans,’” Beth said. Her mother formerly hosted a children’s show on WDSU Channel 6 titled “Mother Goose on the Loose” and her father, Sidney Sr., acted in the movies. At WYES, where she started while still in college in 1981, Beth was steadily promoted to various positions with the station, ending as executive vice president and chief operating officer. “I went there for what was supposed to be a three-month job and, for the next 35 years, I never left,” she recalled. “I loved working at WYES but, after 35 years of that, I was ready for a change. Now I’ve landed in the exact right place for me,” Beth said. Lavishing praise on her staff of 17 full-time employees and a rotation of approximately 70-75 volunteer deejays, Beth said, “They are so dedicated and committed to what we do here.” She recounted how some of them made their way to the station to do their jobs despite the flooding that occurred this past August. “They spent hours trying to get here but 16 | BREAKTHRU MEDIA | breakthrumediamagazine.com S E P T E M B E R / O C TOB E R 2 0 1 7
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